March 1, 2017

Contrary to recent reports, Swain Community Hospital has no plans to discontinue 24-hour emergency services. We know that these are vital services for our community, and ending them has never been a consideration for us.

The hospital continues to provide 24-hour emergency services

As we have previously shared, beginning January 3, 2017, we employed a new staffing model in our emergency department. This will include full emergency department operations with providers and nursing staff from 8 am – midnight. The remaining eight hours in each day will be staffed with an in-house provider who will triage and manage care for patients and take any necessary steps for additional care, such as admission to Swain Community Hospital or transfer to another facility.

Our community will see little change in our emergency department operations, and our patients will not experience any changes in how, when or why they visit our hospital with an emergency.

We want to reiterate that this new model of emergency services is part of an ongoing growth plan at Swain Community Hospital aimed at strengthening our commitment to Swain and Graham counties through the expansion of our services. We have plans in place to add or grow many service lines, including endoscopy, sleep, and imaging, and we are actively recruiting new physicians who provide primary and subspecialty care.

Providing the high-quality care and services that our community needs is our top priority. We are actively seeking how we can enhance and expand the many ways we do this – not limit those.

Swain Community Hospital considers it a privilege to serve the healthcare needs of this region, and we look forward to continuing our legacy of care and collaboration.